My Music Staff Reviews

How can I possibly choose just one thing? Before My Music Staff, keeping track of missed lessons was next to impossible. I had separate notebooks and online files and word docs for attendance, lesson notes, expenses, payments for books and payments for lessons - now it's all together - neat and tidy, organised and at my fingertips (and my teachers') at the studio, at home and on the go! And that's just the beginning...

I do wish My Music Staff was setup to take Electronic Funds Transfers in Canada - as that is a new form of payment I am implementing in my school. I also would like to be able to add my business logo as a header for emails with an automatic signature. I realise I can use placeholders to do this job but it is a little laborious when you're in a rush.

I like the amount of customisation. The calendar Sync. The website functionality and the Families & Invoicing section.

It is not user friendly for the public. It is far too complicated for my business. For example if someone wants to sign up for a course they have to go through Student Portals. Log In. Emails. Setting it up. Saving it to the Homepage. Then they cant pay immediately they have to wait for an invoice and then log in again and finally enter their bank details. I am im discussions of discontinuing with this software. While it has great benefits for Admin it really is too complicated for the public and inviting new customers in. Therefore it is not for us in the long term.

It makes scheduling and keeping track of payments a breeze. Everything is all in one place and generating reports is also simple. For the most part, it does more than I had expected/hoped.

For people who prefer having support via the phone, this is not a good option. There are many times that I wish I could just dial a number to get an answer. That being said, they respond quickly via email. There is also a learning curve with this software that might be a barrier to some.

We have cut our time spent tracking attendance and therefore invoicing by 75% It’s really easy to use and customer service has been impeccable. They are quick to respond and helpful when they do. Plus there is a Facebook group available for community - other users of MMS where often answers are found with a quick search in the group

I do wish there was an app currently available, but the website functions great on my mobile device in the meantime.

It has features that I didn’t realise I would need. It’s the best blends of resources for music teachers and management software.

The experience on phones feels clunky and difficult to navigate. All my staff use it on their phones and would prefer an app that is more condensed for just their day of teaching.

It does everything I need it to do in terms of scheduling, billing and expenses and has other features that I use sometimes such as lesson notes, file sharing, newsletters and lending library. It also has a website included, blog and online signup.

It would be good if students were able to edit/comment on their lesson notes. Also if there could be a blog or newsletter that is not public but only accessible by your clients with the ability for them to comment.

It's (almost) everything in one program. Calendar/scheduling, student management, teacher payroll, business expenses tracking, & even student logins for their accounts & calendars. Reliable, easy to learn. It's fantastic.

I have a hard time coming up with a valid complaint about this program. My only hope is that we can receive communications through the platform in the future, so we don't need phones & emails outside of MMS.

First of all, the price is fantastic for a small business - you pay per teacher you're managing and the base subscription price is outstanding! Any equivalent scheduling software charges as though you are a large company and was many times the price for just me and my partner!

The scheduling interface is easy and pretty intuitive, and I love that I can opt to allow people to change their own times (but only to a time that I've already set aside for teaching). I continue to have control over the times and days that I teach, and I have to deal with fewer make up lesson headaches!

I've only started using some of the other functions this school year (file sharing, practice tracking, sending notes to parents/students, etc) so only a few months, but so far it's working really well and I love being able to contact the parents with concerns or suggestions when the child is not present.

1. Most of my students pay on an automated monthly tuition model, and I would love to be able to set the month beginning/end dates for something other than the 1st. (mid month starts, 2nd pay period, etc)
2. While it is great to be able to message parents with notes, notifications of uploads, etc, it would be great if there were a way to group all those messages together instead of spamming them the day after the lesson.
3. Sometimes changes I make from my mobile device don't save properly (attendance is bad for this)

Hard to choose! I depend on so many facets of MyMusicStaff every day. Perhaps Scheduling is the best aspect, but Accounting is near the top. The calendar is super easy for ongoing daily lesson scheduling and is accessible to parents for canceling and rescheduling, with no attention from me required. I even schedule available make-up slots and parents make us of them.
Accounting is a huge time-saver! Every detail is there and doesn't take much time to comprehend. Ongoing lesson rates, special rates for certain families, automatic or nonautomatic billing, make-up credits--they really know what a music teacher needs!

Not much of a minus, but I'd like a little more flexibility with attendance reports. But I have worked out a way to get what I need.

The ability this website has given me to track student payments and schedules has freed up my time formerly spent on a ridiculous number of admin duties so that now I can TEACH during that time! I can't say enough how much MyMusicStaff is 1000% worth it!!! It's a no-brainer! I appreciate that they keep their prices so low (have you looked at the competition?!!), but I would honestly be happy to pay more! The service they offer my studio is absolutely invaluable. And the customer service! They are so kind, friendly, and eternally patient, lol! I'm grateful!

I feel like these guys are constantly improving the site and responding to requests for even better features... no complaints here!

The scheduling platform is fantastic. I used to send countless, lengthy, endlessly-threaded emails to schedule lessons for my large private voice studio. The MMS scheduling system has saved me so much time, reduced clutter in my email box, and put the responsibility of cancelling/re-scheduling lessons into the hand of my students. Any schedule adjustment made by a student prompts an immediate, automated notification to me, which keeps me informed without having to initiate and handle the scheduling issue myself.

As my studio has continued to grow, the billing / accounting aspect of the software has been very helpful as well. It helps me keep better records of payment, especially when methods of payment range from checks to cash to paypal and credit card.

There is a glitch in the system with website page editing that I hope MMS is able to fix. Although I love the ease with which I am able to build the website through MMS, I am frustrated by the ongoing issues with editing.

I also would love to see the Repertoire section open up to allow students to submit and organize their own repertoire on the MMS platform, rather than requiring the teacher to do it all.

The best features are the automatic invoicing based on the calendar, the reminder texts and emails, the registration form and how I can put it on my website through Weebly, and the student management.

There is no way for two parents to each pay half of a bill for a student. I have worked around this by making a second "student" for the second parent to pay for. I also don't like how the invoices are specific enough and will just say "balance forward" instead of what the charge was. I wish I could customize the left sidebar to take out the features I don't use.

Easy to use, works well with multiple users, gives the students and families online access to their account, provides an auto-pay option, manages billing easily, great customer service - so much more I could add.

Wish the online registration widget could be a bit more attractive for new student registrants.

I love the billing process with My Music Staff! Before using MMS, I spent hours creating and sending invoices and then I would have to chase down payments every month. Now it creates and sends the invoices automatically each month and parents pay me on time, because they receive reminders and it is so easy for them to push a button and pay online. I was so surprised in my first month with MMS when parents were sending me payments while I was out enjoying my time off with family - I completely forgot that invoices had gone out already, and I was able to sit back and let MMS do all the work.

The only improvements that could be made to MMS is in the website section. I love the design and look of MMS, and that is one of the reasons I chose to use it. It looks so much better and it is so much easier to use than some of their competitors like Music Teacher's Helper. I even love the designs of MMS's ads on facebook and instagram, and the designs of their new printables. While the design for MMS is the best I have seen, the website template designs are not good. The designs look outdated and the personalization features are no where near Wordpress, Squarespace, or other website design companies. This issue is not a big deal breaker for me, because so many of the other features on MMS are fantastic, however it is the only section of MMS that I don't use.

My Music Staff is intuitive and easy to use. I came over from a competitor's software, and the difference is night and day. I was constantly encountering glitches and needing support with the other product, but with My Music Staff I have needed support only one time in almost a year. Customer service was incredibly responsive, friendly, and resolved my issue right away. The interface and functionality are very smooth with My Music Staff. I highly recommend this software to anyone who teaches music, regardless of the size of your studio. My Music Staff will streamline your processes and make your life so much easier!

At first I was disappointed that they don't have a dedicated app. But the mobile optimized (responsive design) website works extremely well on my Android phone, and since I am already familiar with the website it is very easy to navigate and syncs seamlessly. So I really can't point to any cons; my experience has been entirely positive so far.